Over seven months, in 2,900 pages of messages sent over Telegram, elected Republicans and the leaders of local groups for young party activists in New York, Vermont, Arizona and Kansas routinely used racist and homophobic language and glibly invoked Hitler and the Holocaust.
The texts, reported on Tuesday by Politico, were part of a “RESTOREYR WAR ROOM” chat of about a dozen Gen Z and millennial Republicans, some of whom held jobs in elected officials’ offices or in government posts. The exchanges mixed politics with personal matters, laced throughout with offensive language that was shocking for its volume and groupthink.
Peter Giunta, chief of staff to Mike Reilly, a New York assemblyman, posted, “I Love Hitler” and wrote, “If your pilot is a she and she looks ten shades darker than someone from Sicily, just end it there. Scream the no no word.”
At another point, according to Politico, Mr. Giunta was asked if he was watching an NBA game, and he responded, “I’d go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey play ball.” In a June message, he wrote that “everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber.”
William Hendrix, the vice chair of Kansas Young Republicans, used racial slurs against Black people: “Bro is at a chicken restaurant ordering his food. Would he like some watermelon and kool aid with that?”
And Samuel Douglass, a state senator in Vermont, responded to a chat about “a very obese Indian woman” with, “She just didn’t bathe often.”
Politico reported that epithets appeared more than 251 times.
The texts, which The New York Times has not seen, have created a firestorm, putting Republican leaders on the defensive. Many state officials have condemned the texts, which occurred between January and August, and some who participated in the chats have lost their jobs or have been called on to resign.
But some top Republican leaders, including President Trump, have not weighed in, and others have played down the text messages. Vice President JD Vance compared them to “anything said in a college group chat,” even though many came from local party officials and not college students.
The emergence of the texts and the disparate reactions to them among Republicans revealed not only a split in the party but also, for some, a comfort with rhetoric that once would have been routinely denounced. On the far right, some suggested that any condemnation of the racist, sexist and homophobic discourse was a betrayal of the conservative cause.
“A few college kids make edgy jokes in a group chat and conservatives are tripping over themselves to denounce and disavow and call for firings and resignations,” Matt Walsh, a right-wing commentator, posted on X. “If you’re still playing by rules the Left sets but doesn’t even follow themselves, you’re hopeless. Completely hopeless,” he added.
In a text message to The New York Times on Wednesday, Mr. Giunta said he took “complete responsibility” and apologized: “I am so sorry to those offended by the insensitive and inexcusable language found within the more than 28,000 messages of a private group chat.”
In his message to The Times, Mr. Giunta said an intraparty squabble in New York and a “year-long character assassination” campaign were to blame for bringing the chats to light.
None of the other officials who participated in the chat responded immediately to calls and emails requesting comment.
On the state level, some participants have faced criticism and repercussions. Mr. Reilly, the New York assemblyman, fired Mr. Giunta as his chief of staff. Representative Mike Lawler, who is viewed as one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the 2026 midterms, called on any New York Republicans who were involved in the chats to “resign from any leadership position immediately and reflect on how far they have strayed from basic human respect and decency.”
In Kansas, the state Republican Party disbanded its Young Republicans group; one member, who had been an aide to Kris Kobach, the state attorney general, was fired last week. And in Vermont, Gov. Phil Scott, a moderate Republican who voted for Kamala Harris for president, demanded that Mr. Douglass step down from the State Senate. (Mr. Douglass’s wife, Brianna, an official of the Vermont Young Republicans, was also involved in the chat, and posted an antisemitic remark.)
The Young Republican National Federation posted on Tuesday that it was “appalled by the vile and inexcusable language” and called the group chat “disgraceful” and “unbecoming of any Republican,” adding that the participants should resign.
But Democrats have criticized the response from top Republican leadership. In a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, called Mr. Vance’s reaction “outrageous” and accused him of condemning violent political discourse “only when it serves his interests.”
“Too many Republicans seem willing to call out violent rhetoric only when it comes from the other side,” Mr. Schumer said. “But these same Republicans never seem willing to denounce it when it comes from their own ranks, and that’s dangerous. Violent political rhetoric is an attack on everyone.”
Democrats have their own texting issues. In Virginia, Jay Jones, the party’s candidate for state attorney general, has apologized for a series of messages he sent in 2022 comparing the state’s Republican speaker to Hitler and Pol Pot, and suggesting that he deserved to be killed.
Republicans have demanded that Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia, withdrew her support for Mr. Jones. He has vowed to stay in the race.
Mr. Vance, in his post on Tuesday, compared Mr. Jones’s comments to the Republican text messages. “I refuse to join the pearl clutching when powerful people call for political violence,” he wrote.
On Wednesday, Mr. Vance doubled down and said critics should “focus on the real issues” and “grow up.”
Sabrina Tavernise contributed reporting. Georgia Gee contributed research.
David W. Chen reports on state legislatures, state level policymaking and the political forces behind them.
Megan Mineiro is a Times congressional reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early-career journalists.
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